HOG - Harley-News

the first Ace Cafe London Motorcycle
& Custom Show, robin bradley
The first annual Ace Cafe London
Motorcycle & Custom Show, held at the
end of February at Alexandra Palace,
London, was an official Affiliate event
of the AMD World Championship of
Custom Bike Building. This brand-new
event for the UK custom bike scene got
off to a flying start and produced some
historic results for Harley-Davidson
factory platform customising.
The show featured five classes in total,
but it’s the world-famous ‘FreeStyle’ and
Modified Harley-Davidson classes, whose
guidelines are taken directly from the World
Championship rule book, that produced
the star attractions.
The Ace Show in London is the latest of
a series of attempts to give the UK a worldclass
custom expo formula that will stand
the test of time, and post-show custom
industry reaction suggests that the event
has succeeded in providing a start point
from which it can develop and grow in
future years.
Fifty-three bikes competed at ‘Ally Pally’,
with the ‘FreeStyle’ and Modified Harley-
Davidson classes attracting the majority
of entries. Winners at World Championship
Affiliate events win qualification and prize
money to be able to compete at the World
Championships, and the hot news was
that for the first time ever an authorised
Harley-Davidson dealer won a World
Championship ‘Sturgis’ prize.
Shaw Harley-Davidson, from Sussex in
the UK, took the Modified Harley-Davidson
class win with ‘Strike True II’, a customised
2010 ‘Crossbones’ that, in the opinion of
their fellow competitors, was the clear
class winner.
Shaw had three custom projects in the
competition, and in also taking second and
fourth place, sandwiching Warr’s Harley-
Davidson of London in third spot, it marked
a clean sweep of the top four positions in
the Modified Harley-Davidson class for UK
Harley dealers.
The class and first prize were sponsored
by Harley-Davidson in the UK, and Shaw
Harley-Davidson will now go forward to
represent the ‘Ally Pally’ Harley-Davidson
Inc.-sponsored Modified Harley class finals
at the World Championship this summer.
The success that Shaw Harley-Davidson
has achieved represents a dramatic
statement about the custom styling options
and flexibility that Harley-Davidson factory
platforms offer custom styling enthusiasts.
This is the first time that a World
Championship Affiliate event and World
Championship ‘Sturgis’ prize has been won
either by an authorised Harley-Davidson
dealer, or by a custom project based on
a current Harley-Davidson model.
All the work (excepting for the classy
paint job by Image Design in the UK) was
done at the dealership by Shaw Harley-
Davidson technicians, with Steve Willis,
Neil Sefton and Dave Rollison leading a
team effort on a project that was a product
of Shaw Harley-Davidson’s in-house
Custom Design Studio. Shaw Harley-
Davidson Dealer Principal and head
custom designer Steve Willis said:
“Winning any show is great but to win at
London’s first-ever World Championship
Affiliate custom show is just fantastic.
Now we have the prospect of competing
against the world’s best bikes at Sturgis
ahead of us. What an opportunity!”
The result is a custom Harley that
convincingly blends the contemporary
riding values of the 2010 ‘Crossbones’
with classic custom styling. It combines
popular custom options available from the
Screamin’ Eagle programme with selected
quality products from independent parts
and accessory designers such as Roland
Sands (seat, fuel system, transmission and
engine covers), Vance & Hines (mufflers)
Performance Machine (brake calipers,
hand and foot controls), Paughco (front
springer forks), Crime Scene Choppers
(front and rear lights) and a custom oil tank
by ‘New York Nick’ Genender of New York
Choppers fame.
The package clearly convinced the
judges at the ‘Ally Pally’ show, as ‘Strike
True II’ was a clear winner!
www.acecustomshow.com
www.shawharley-davidson.com
Mark Willsmore, MD of the Ace Cafe
London (left), Roger Withers of Harley-
Davidson UK (right) and Show Grand
Marshal Russell Mitchell (in the red shirt)